· Vocalisation of syllabic liquids *r̥, *l̥, to *or(/ur), *ol(/ur) before consonant, and *ar, *al before vowel. No single vowel can be reconstructed for the vocalisation of nasals, hence a schwa is hypothesised: *m̥, *n̥ → *əm, *ən.

· Lengthening of vowels preceding former spirants.

· Fronting of *ūi̯ to *īi̯ (“pius-law”).

· Lowering of *ou̯ to *au̯ before vowels (“Thurneyesen-Havet’s law; preceding the PIE rounding of *eu̯ to *ou̯).

· Development of suffix “conglomerates” with a prominent concentration of new abstract and adjective formations.

· Reorganisation of the present, aorist, and perfect tense/aspect categories (as well as secondary categories like iterative-causative, stative, and desiderative) into a two-part (mainly) tense-based system, opposing for each verb:

o an infectum or “present system” (with four “conjugation classes” and all forms based on a present stem), including common past indicative suffix *-β-, future suffix from desiderative *-s-/-so-, and subjunctive from it with lengthened vowel;

o to a perfectum or “perfect system” (with all forms based on a “perfect stem”) reflecting a merger of perfect and aorist.

In Common Italic (post-Proto-Italic period) changes include e.g. the debuccalisation of *x to *h (and *γ to *ɦ); the loss of certain short vowels in word internal syllables, etc.

Archaic documentation of Latin and Faliscan start in the mid–7th c. BC in common with Etruscan, after the reception and diffusion of Greek alphabets, while Sabellic languages (traditionally labelled Oscan and Umbrian) start around a century later. A regional stabilisation of alphabets occurred only from the 6th c. BC. The existence of two quite distinct sub-branches in the early 1st millennium BC, Latino-Faliscan and Palaeo-Sabellic, puts a common estimate for Proto-Italic around the mid– to late–2nd millennium BC. If related to Venetic in an ancestral Italo-Venetic trunk, the proto-language would be slightly older, and would place the proto-language Urheimat more clearly in Northern Italy.

The Siculian or Sicel language, documented from the end of the 6th c. to the 4th c. BC in central and easern Sicily, is believed to have arrived either around the 13th c. or in the middle of the 11th c. BC (or in both waves) from their ancient settlements in the mainland, driving prior inhabitants (Sicanians and Elymians) to the west of Sicily. While the interpretation of the script is difficult, it seems that it might have been closely related to the Latino-Faliscan, Sabellian, or Ausonian branches, which would place the language into the Italic trunk (Hartmann 2017).